Veterans Montgomery Gentry and Sugarland take a back seat to an outstanding parade of up-and-comers in this edition of DisClaimer. Jordan Davis, Ashley Monroe, Tyler Farr and Maddie & Tae all have listenable new tunes.

The Disc of the Day award goes to another rising young artist, Devin Dawson.

There’s so much fine new talent here that I am splitting the DisCovery Award into three salutes. The Duo/Group winner is Muscadine Bloodline. The Female winner is Abby Anderson. The Male honoree is Travis Denning. Live long and prosper, all of you.

TRAVIS DENNING/David Ashley Parker From Powder SpringsWriters: none listed; Producer: none listed; Publisher: none listed; Mercury (CDX)
– Pretty dang cool. He sings like a country pro, and the song has hooks in all the right places. Big bonus points for compositional creativity, since it’s undoubtedly the first song ever written exclusively about a fake I.D.

TYLER FARR/Love By The MoonWriters: none listed; Producer: none listed; Publishers: none listed; Columbia
– Punchy. His tightly-wound, slightly strangulated vocal style is ear catching. And you can’t beat a lyric hook like, “Live by the sun/Love by the moon,” even if the rest of the lyric is standard-issue bro-country.

ABBY ANDERSON/Make Him WaitWriters: Anderson/Josh Kerr/Tom Douglas; Producer: Josh Kerr; Publishers: Tunes of Black River/Purple Keystone/Songs of Black River/Whistlepig Winners/Sony-ATV Tree/Tomdouglasmusic, BMI/ASCAP; Black River
– Luminous. Melting with warmth. Its message to young girls about holding onto your innocence is worthy. To have your ears really pinned back, experience this artist live. She is a Fourth-of-July sparkler of a personality.

DEVIN DAWSON/Asking For A FriendWriters: none listed; Producer: none listed; Publishers: none listed; Atlantic
– The conversational lyric is just terrific. His super-warm vocal performance is sprinkled with stardust. The wafting production is pristine and perfect. This romantic come-on should absolutely dissolve female listeners.

MADDIE & TAE/Friends Don’tWriters: Maddie Marlow/Taylor Dye/Jon Nite/Justin Ebach; Producers: Jimmy Robbins/Derek Wells; Publisher: none listed; Mercury
– The song is there and, as always, their voices are beyond dandy. The production seems a little dense and busy on first listen, but I think I could definitely get used to this.

Search Articles

February/March 2019

Album Releases

March 29George Strait/Honky Tonk Time Machine/MCA NashvilleJake Owen/GREETINGS FROM…JAKE/Big Loud RecordsEli Young Band/This Is Eli Young Band (Greatest Hits)/The Valory Music Co.LOCASH/Brothers/Wheelhouse Records-BBR Music GroupSteve Earle/GUY/New West RecordsMichael Johnathon/Dazed and Confuzed/PoetMan RecordsVarious/Now That’s What I Call Country Vol. 12/(UMG-Sony

April 5Brooks & Dunn/REBOOT/Arista Nashville-Sony Music NashvilleReba McEntire/Stronger Than The Truth/Big Machine Records